Honduras: son of ex-prez guilty on coke charge

The 2009 coup d'etat in Honduras has recently been in the news due to revelations that it was lubricated by then-Secretary of State and current Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Now comes the embarassing news that the son of Honduras' ex-president Porfirio Lobo has pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking charges in a federal court in Manhattan, and faces a mandatory 10-year prison term. Fabio Lobo, 44, admitted to scheming to import a “multi-ton load” of cocaine into the US. Federal prosecutors said the younger Lobo was snared by DEA informants who went undercover as traffickers and started collecting evidence against him in 2013. They popped him in Haiti a year ago, and put him on a plane to New York. Said US Attorney Preet Bharara: "Whether you are a street-level dealer, a member of a cartel, or the son of a former foreign president, drug dealing is drug dealing. It is a serious federal crime for which you will be prosecuted."

This is particulalry damning news because Porfirio Lobo's inauguration in 2010 after new elections were held was supposed to mark Honduras' return to democracy, allowing the State Department to claim a "happy ending." This despite the fact that the elections were overseen by an outlaw regime not recognized by most world governments. (Honduras did not return to the Organization of American States until May 2011, when a deal was worked out that allowed the president ousted in the coup to return to the country and participate in the political process.) Fabio getting sent up the river provides further evidence that the coupsters turned Honduras into a major hub for narco-trafficking—and that the political elite remained ensconced in this dirty trade even after the "happy ending."